This invention relates to devices for mounting elements that allow vehicle doors, particularly automobile doors, to be opened and closed.
Currently, the mounting of vehicle door opening control elements and, more generally, of all the elements fitted to automobile doors, is lengthy and painstaking due to the excessive number of parts associated with these elements. Furthermore, the order in which mounting is to be performed is complex, thereby limiting the number of operations that can be performed in a specialist workshop at a site that is distant, or even remote, from the site of the vehicle production line.
Thus, there exists a need for a mounting device that allows a reduction in the number of elements associated with the vehicle door opening control and in the number of operations to be performed on the vehicle production line.
A device for mounting a vehicle door opening control includes an exterior door panel having a door aperture, a door edge face positioned perpendicular to the exterior door panel, and an equipment module having a support plate and equipment elements borne by the support plate. The mounting device comprises an outside opening control module having an opening component for opening the door from outside the vehicle and an attachment component on an inside surface thereof. The mounting device further comprises an intermediate mounting plate, borne by the module support plate between it and the exterior panel, and having an attachment cooperating component for cooperating with the attachment component of the outside opening control module to secure it to the exterior door panel at the door aperture. The intermediate mounting plate also comprises a locating element for positioning the equipment elements to enable connection of the opening component to a lock.
By virtue of this structure, the mounting of the outside opening control module, or handle, known in the art by the name of COO, is made appreciably easier, and the cables or rods for connecting the door lock to the door handle may be supported while at the same time being prepositioned in such a way as to make it easier for their free end to be attached to the outside opening control module.
Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the following description of some embodiments of the invention and from the appended drawings.